Social Links

Disasters

Between 2000 and 2010 more than two billion people worldwide were affected by disasters. In the 1990s, disasters such as hurricanes, floods, and fires caused more than $608 billion in economic losses worldwide, losses greater than those incurred during the previous four decades. Disaster response for communities of color must be grounded in a holistic perspective that includes the cultural patterns of low-wealth and disenfranchised communities.

The predisaster preparedness plan should include training from crisis personnel that has a strong focus on self-exploration of the responder.

Training of crisis-response teams should emphasize that within targeted groups such as children or the elderly, health-care workers, first responders, and underserved cultural groups, there will be racial and cultural variation.

The training of health-care providers should include consideration of the pre-, present-, and post-traumatic experiences, and also the effects of prior traumatic experiences, including those that result from daily living (e.g., sudden death, car accidents, violence and discrimination).

Disaster increases competition for housing in the impacted areas. They place a special burden on black renters and homebuyers seeking replacement housing, exposing them to housing discrimination. The result is a ‘discrimination tax’ that ends up costing black renters and homebuyers more than whites for comparable housing.

African Americans experience heightened post-storm stressors (emotional health, environmental, and economic) a type of ‘second disaster’ that is compounded by institutional and structural discrimination in the distribution and allocation of post-disaster resources.

Disasters create scarcities—in housing, health care, schools and access to banks and lending institutions. Scarcities intensify competition and discrimination; they place a special burden on black renters and black homebuyers seeking replacement housing. These conditions results in longer stays in temporary housing.

After Katrina and Rita, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Red Cross left African American populations unserved. For instance, inn Biloxi, many African Americans remained camped outside of their demolished houses and apartments, and under highway overpasses for an overly extended time (some weeks) awaiting aid from FEMA and the Red Cross.

The statistics about to be mentioned is mind-boggling. One of every three African American applicants, 29.83 percent were denied conventional home purchase loans in 2002, down from 39.73 percent in 2000 and 56.6 percent in 1997. In 2004, African Americans in New Orleans were twice as likely as their white counterparts to have their loan applications rejected—20.41 percent versus 10.4 percent.

The percentage of conventional loans made to African Americans also lags behind their percentage of the population. African Americans make up almost 13 percent of the country’s population but receive just 5.1 percent of the conventional loans. Lenders also fail to adequately serve low-and moderate income communities, which make up 26 percent of the population but receive just 11 percent of the conventional loans.